We recently spotlighted eye-opening reports on government waste from the offices of Republican Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., also recently issued a report entitled, with a nod to the new “Star Wars” movie, “Wastebook: The Farce Awakens.”

Sen. Flake’s Wastebook includes 100 examples of “egregious, outrageous and unnecessary government spending” totaling more than $100 billion. “To see so much money so outlandishly wasted, it’s clear that Washington’s ballyhooing over budget austerity is a farce,” Sen. Flake said in a statement.

Among some of the more expensive items are the tens of billions of dollars wasted each year on improper payments, from student loans to Social Security payments to bogus tax benefits to numerous welfare program disbursements. The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent $448 million on housing subsidies for at least 106,000 ineligible households, while many others remain on long wait lists for housing.

Then there is the more than $1.1 billion spent over the past two years subsidizing the tobacco industry, while simultaneously spending hundreds of millions of dollars on anti-smoking campaigns. The federal government spends $110 million a year to maintain more than 360 empty, unused and excess buildings in Afghanistan, and the Department of Veterans Affairs spent $40 million on artwork and junkets to conferences while veterans continue to struggle to receive adequate health care.

Some examples are in the realm of the ridiculous, such as $1 million to train monkeys to run on a treadmill in a hamster ball, $115,000 in National Endowment for the Arts grants for several puppet shows and $300,000 for “a cheese-themed retail store and heritage center” in Wisconsin.

California got its share of the pork, too, including $65,000 for an extra virgin olive oil competition at the 2015 California State Fair and $1.8 million to build a zip line on the La Jolla Indian Reservation in San Diego County.

As humorous as some of these examples are, they make it hard to take members of Congress seriously when they talk about rooting out waste, fraud and abuse and addressing the nearly $19 trillion national debt.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.